The present invention relates generally to vehicle seats, and more particularly to vehicle seats of the type utilized in the rear seating positions of utility vehicles having provisions for folding down the seats to form a load floor in the vehicle.
It is known to provide a vehicle seat whose seat cushion height and longitudinal position is controlled by the motion of an arrangement of parallel links pivotally mounted between the seat cushion and the vehicle floor. A copending application of one of the applicants and Martienssen discloses a particularly advantageous version of such a seat positioning linkage system. This copending application also shows a latching mechanism for stopping the pivotal movement of the positioning linkage in a variety of positions.
Another copending application of one of the applicants of the present invention discloses other variant mechanisms utilized in the latching of such a seat for intermediate positioning. Each of the latching mechanisms, however, are operative completely independently of the position of the seat back of the stowable vehicle seat which is arranged to be pivoted from an upright vertical position to an essentially horizontal position in a stowable vehicle seat to define a load floor. It is desirable in certain vehicle applications to ensure that the seat cushion is moved to the stowed position only when the seat back is folded downwardly and not when in the full upright position.
It is known in the vehicle seating arts to provide mechanisms to prevent the inadvertent adjustment of seat positions. Berneking et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,461,511, is exemplary of such devices. Like the latches of the above mentioned copending applications, however, such devices have not coordinated the position of the seat back with the prevention of inadvertent adjustment.
Another seat locking arrangement for positioning pivoting links is exemplified in Ercilla, U.S. Pat. No. 4,700,989. It likewise operates independently of the position of the seat back.
Controls for the positioning of seat backs in stowable seats is also known. See, for example, Gokimoto et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,484,776, which provides for a control linkage, again, an independent one, for moving the seat back from its upright to a stowed position.